DuPont

E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Company (DuPont) is a diversified global chemical, agricultural and biotechnology corporation with headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. The company also manufactures and markets consumer products and services in the areas of nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel. It is one of the world's largest chemical companies, with facilities in over 70 countries. . Dupont is the third largest chemical maker (after Dow and ExxonMobil Chemicals) in the U.S.  The company operates through five divisions: automotive finishes and coatings; agrochemicals and genetically modified (GMO) seeds; electronics (LCDs, sensors, and fluorochemicals); polymers and resins for packaging; and safety/security materials (under brand names like Tyvek, Kevlar and Corian). In the last decade, DuPont has divested some of its operations. It no longer produces pharmaceuticals and has spun off its fibers operations as well. The company's main focus is now biotechnology and safety/protection.

In the fiscal year ending in December of 2009 the company reported sales of approximately 27.33 billion dollars and had 58,000 employees.

Overview & history
DuPont became the world’s largest seed company in 1999, after acquiring Pioneer Hi-Bred. It sells hybrid seeds principally for the global production of corn and soybeans. DuPont’s Agriculture & Nutrition segment also provides crop protection chemicals, soya (GMO soy) based food ingredients and food safety equipment. ,

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was founded in 1802 on the banks of the Brandywine River near Wilmington, Delaware by french chemist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company began life as a partnership in gunpowder and explosives. By 1811, it was the nation’s largest gunpowder manufacturer. By the time the company incorporated in 1902, it controlled 36% of the U.S. powder market. By 1905 it held a 75% share. DuPont alone was responsible for 56% of the national production of explosives. With $60 million in estimated assets, it was one of the country's largest corporations. In fact, DuPont became so dominant that the government initiated anti-trust proceedings in 1907. In 1912, the company was deemed a gunpowder monopoly and ordered to divest a substantial portion of its business. Despite the streamlining, DuPont still managed to supply 40% of all explosives used by Allied forces in World War 1 (1.5 billion lbs).

DuPont gradually diversified in the early 20th century. Experiments with a product known as guncotton, an early form of nitroglycerine, led to involvement in the textile industry. After World War 1, peacetime use of artificial fibres proved more profitable than explosives. In the 1920s DuPont acquired the rights to cellophane from a French company. DuPont researchers produced a moisture-proof cellophane, which transformed it from a decorative wrap to packaging for food and other products. Also in the 1920's, DuPont acquired General Motors and entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Standard Oil (now Exxon) to produce and market the lead additive in petrol (known as ethyl). The new company was called the Ethyl Corporation. Economically, the company’s most important discovery was Nylon. Nylon was originally created in 1930, by a polymer research group headed by Wallace H. Carothers. A large number of synthetic products followed, including Lucite (a clear, tough plastic resin), Teflon (resin used in non-stick cookware), Butacite PVB interlayer (plastic used in automotive safety glass).

2nd World War: making a killing (again)
Over the course of the war, DuPont produced 4.5 billion pounds of explosives for the military. The company was heavily involved in weapon development; primarily plastic and other forms of explosives; gun and rocket propellants and chemical weapons. From 1941 to 1945, DuPont contributed to the Manhattan Project that produced the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. DuPont was the principal mass producer of plutonium in the US. The company designed, built and operated the world’s first plutonium production plant, at the request of the government. During the war, DuPont managed a 25 government plants, manufacturing mainly explosives, methanol, ammonia and neoprene rubber. DuPont profited immensely from the war, emerging with a cash fund exceeding $196 million dollars. ,

For a full corporate profile, see also Dupont De NeMours and Company.

Global presence
Dupont has facilities in the following countries: North America - Canada, Mexico, United States; Latin America - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela; Europe & Middle East - Abu Dhabi, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dubai, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom; Africa - South Africa, Zimbabwe; Asia-Pacific - Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Animal testing
Dupont does animal testing.

Facility information, progress reports & USDA-APHIS reports
For links to copies of a facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Animal Plant Health Inspection (APHIS) reports, other information and links, see also Stop Animal Experimentation NOW!: Facility Reports and Information. This site contains listings for all 50 states, links to biomedical research facilities in that state and PDF copies of government documents where facilities must report their animal usage. (Search: Wilmington, DE; Newark, DE.)

USDA AWA reports
As of May 26, 2009, the USDA began posting all inspection reports for animal breeders, dealers, exhibitors, handlers, research facilities and animal carriers by state. See also USDA Animal Welfare Inspection Reports.

Global GMOs & herbicide market
The top biotechnology companies are Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Bayer. (Syngenta is a subsidiary of parent companies AstraZeneca and Novartis. Aventis' agribusiness division was bought out by Bayer.)  They account for almost 100% of the genetically engineered seed and 60% of the global pesticide market. Thanks to recent acquisitions, they now own 23% of the commercial seed market. In 1999, almost 80% of total global transgenic acreage was planted in GMO (genetically modefied organism) soy, corn, cotton and canola. Until then, farmers could spray herbicides before planting, but not after, as herbicides would kill the intended crop. The other 20% of genetically modified acreage is planted with crops that produce pesticides. Monsanto’s "New Leaf" potato kills potato beetles, but is itself registered as a pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The five largest biotech companies in the world are also the five largest herbicide companies. GMOs ensure a continuous and ever-expanding market for their agrochemicals.

Under current policy, the government provides large subsidies to farmers to produce grains, in particularly corn and soybeans. Livestock producers use corn and soy as a base for animal feed as they are protein rich and fatten up the animals. They are also cheap (due to government subsidies.) Livestock consumes 47% of the soy and 60% of the corn produced in the US. See also Food and Drug Administration.

Environmental issues
In March 2002 the then West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, Andy Gallagher, drafted a media release to inform residents in Wood County, West Virginia, that the toxic chemical C8 (also known as PFOA) was in air emissions from DuPont's Parkersburg plant. In a deposition as part of a class action suit by residents Gallagher stated that Dee Ann Staats, a toxicologist working as the departments' science adviser, insisted that all statements relating to C8 emissions were to be vetted by DuPont.

Gallagher's testimony, obtained from the federal Environment Protection Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal when Gallagher issued the statement without the approval of Staats or the company, DuPont went all out to kill the release. A DuPont PR official, Dawn Jackson, contacted Ann Bradley, a lawyer with Spilman Thomas & Battle who represent DuPont. After lobbying from the company, Gallagher withdrew the media release.

Air pollution
DuPont ranked number one in the Political Economy Research Institute's top 100 air polluters in the U.S. for 2002.

Products
Jan. 11, 2005 - "DuPont publicists invited reporters to the company's Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg (West Virginia) for a major announcement," reported the Charleston Gazette. DuPont claimed that a new study proved "there are no known human health effects associated with exposure to PFOA," also known as C8, a chemical used in Teflon and other nonstick products. DuPont promoted the study "as having the seal of approval from ... independent experts from various universities, including John Hopkins and Yale." But those experts disagreed with DuPont's characterization of the study. Professor David Wegman emailed, "We were unanimous in believing that the results do show a health effect," pointing to "significantly elevated values" for cholesterol among workers with PFOA exposure. Wegman's email and other correspondence were made public in late 2007 as part of a lawsuit over PFOA pollution in Salem County, N.J. The independent scientists supposedly advising DuPont warned the company that "we question the basis of DuPont's public expression asserting that PFOA does not pose a risk to health."

See also Teflon issues.

June 2005 - Rhode Island agreed to drop DuPont from its lawsuit against former makers of lead paint. As part of the deal, which likely saved the chemical company billions, DuPont agreed to donate $9 million to the Children's Health Forum, for efforts geared to avoid childhood exposure to lead.

November 2005 - Former top DuPont scientist, Glenn Evers, revealed that the company covered up that it knew of the potential adverse health effects from using a persistent chemical on grease-resistant coatings on paper food packaging. He recounted how in the mid-1960s, the company negotiated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Working Group noted, "a weak standard for how much of the paper chemical coating, which is applied to give packaging grease or liquid resistance, could contaminate food. The FDA at the time normally required a two-year study for chemicals it wasn't familiar with, but agreed to base DuPont's approval on a 90-day test with a 1,000-fold safety factor added."


 * "Evers explains how that standard, which remains in effect today, was based on the premise that the chemical would leave the body quickly. He explained that as a company expert, he saw that the company knew, at least by 1981, that another class of perfluorinated chemicals, such as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), accumulates in people. It is unclear whether or not the company ever provided the FDA this information, but Evers explained how the company continued to worry about this information throughout the 1990s," noted an Environmental Working Group news release.

August 2006 - the Associated Press reported that the Children's Health Forum was founded by Dr. Benjamin Hooks, a consultant hired by DuPont, "to help the company address childhood lead poisoning." The group was initially incorporated as a lobbying group, but later became a nonprofit charity. Most of the money raised by the group has come from DuPont. Several board members have ties to DuPont; executive director Olivia Morgan works for the PR firm Dewey Square Group, which counts DuPont among its clients. Yet, the Children's Health Forum group claimed to act independently of DuPont.

Clean government activists said that DuPont's settlement should have gone to the state. "The fact that DuPont now is going to have such control over this process does not sound right," said Robert Arruda of the Rhode Island group Operation Clean Government.

Toxic waste
August 2008 - Governor Joe Manchin III of West Virginia filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the State Supreme Court should review a $382 million judgment against the DuPont Company, as part of the largest civil penalty ever levied against the company. A jury in Harrison County, West Virginia, ordered DuPont to pay nearly $382 million to monitor nearly 8,000 residents in the area for signs of cancer, to clean up the site and pay punitive damages for dumping toxic arsenic, cadmium and lead in the vicinities of its local plant. Various documents prove that the governor met with the vice president of DuPont and one of the company’s lawyers to discuss the appeal, as well as with the company's chairman and chief executive, Charles O. Holliday Jr., on Nov. 20, 2007, less than a month after the original verdict. Shortly before the governor filed his brief, DuPont lawyers provided his office with two draft briefs that made many of the same arguments he later used in his brief, documents show.


 * "It was the first time a West Virginia governor had taken such action in a case in which the state was not a party, one expert said, and Mr. Manchin’s actions angered plaintiffs, who argued that the executive branch was inappropriately pressuring the judicial branch."

USW unveils critical report at World Safety Congress
On September 20, 2006, United Steelworkers' (USW) officials unveiled a report analyzing DuPont's "abominable health and safety record" at the XVIIth World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Orlando, Florida. The report documented violations and accidents that:


 * "establish a clear pattern of denial of corporate responsibility. When the harmful conditions that cause accidents exist, these catastrophes at DuPont plants become catastrophes for workers and the public."

The report discussed DuPont's safety program, DuPont STOP (from which the company earns over $100 million in revenues). STOP is "based on the theory that almost all injuries are caused by workers." According to Mike Wright, head of the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department:


 * "In contrast, the USW has tracked data on fatality investigations for 20 years. What we almost always find when we investigate catastrophic accidents, including fatalities, is that multiple root causes related to hazards and unsafe conditions, not multiple unsafe behaviors, cause the accident."

Other key findings in the report include:


 * Failure to report industrial accidents to OSHA
 * One of the "Dangerous Dozen" which put over 9 million people at risk
 * 20 Superfund sites and thousands of sick plaintiffs
 * Number one producer of toxic dioxins in the U.S.
 * Sued by EPA for withholding evidence of the potentially harmful Teflon-chemical, C8

According to Ken Test, Chair of the USW DuPont Council:


 * "When it comes to worker safety and protecting the environment, DuPont, does not 'Walk the Talk'. Many of our members and retirees suffer from their exposure to dangerous chemicals that they encountered on the job during their years of loyal service. In fact, I could not think of a more inappropriate corporation to profit off the message of safety. These workers were asked to trust DuPont and now regret it."

Steel workers protest DuPont safety award
On September 23, 2006 USW members and others in the labor movement the safety award given by the National Safety Council (NSC) to DuPont at its annual conference in Orlando, Florida. The NSC awards and annual Green Cross to an organization that has "distinguished itself over a period of years for outstanding achievement in workplace and off-the-job safety and health programs, community service, environmental stewardship, and responsible citizenship." According to Ken Test:


 * "We condemn the fact that DuPont received this award, since it appears this company's actions contradict the NSC's criteria."

USW members clad in orange t-shirts, proclaimed DuPont puts "U.S. Jobs and the Environment at Risk," in a protest directly after the release of a published report connecting health, safety violations and accidents to the DuPont STOP behavior-based safety program. USW research has shown that multiple root causes related to hazards and unsafe conditions, not multiple unsafe behaviors, cause accidents. According to DuPont worker Jim Rowe:


 * "We felt it was vital that members of the health and safety community understood the truth regarding DuPont's safety record. What this company sells to other corporations and what actually happens at DuPont plants are two completely different things. In fact, we have found many safety folks here at the conference have been sympathetic to our message."

The USW represents 1,800 workers at six DuPont facilities.

Nanotechnology
In October of 2005, DuPont and Environmental Defense (ED) announced a "partnership" to:


 * "define a systematic and disciplined process that can be used to identify, manage and reduce potential health, safety and environmental risks of nano-scale materials across all lifecycle stages. This framework will then be pilot-tested on specific nano-scale materials or applications of commercial interest to DuPont."

Marketing traditional products with 'Nano' label
A promotional web page on Teflon by Invista, a Koch Industries subsidiary apparently indicates otherwise.


 * "Teflon® works on the nano scale," it boasts. "Teflon® leather protector provides an invisible molecular barrier which lowers the critical surface tension of natural leather and suede. This protects leather and suede by repelling water and oil-based liquids as well as dry soil," the wesbite states.

However, in an email to SourceWatch a DuPont toxicologist, David B. Warheit, confirmed that the Teflon leather protector is "not a nanotechnology product".

See also Environmental Defense Dances With DuPont On Nanotechnology.

Key executives

 * Ellen Kullman - Chairman & CEO
 * James C. Borel - Executive VP
 * Thomas M. Connelly, Jr. - Executive VP & CIO
 * Thomas L. Sager - Senior VP & General Counsel
 * Nicholas Fanandakis - CFO
 * Mark P. Vergnano - Executive VP
 * W. Donald Johnson - Senior VP, DuPont Human Resources

Board members

 * Ellen Kullman - Chairman & CEO
 * Samuel W. Bodman - Former United States Secretary of Energy
 * Richard H. Brown - Former Chairman & CEO, EDS
 * Robert A. Brown - President, Boston University
 * Bertrand Collomb - Chairman & Former CEO, Lafarge, Bertrand & Collomb
 * Curtis J. Crawford - President & CEO, XCEO, Inc.
 * Alexander M. Cutler - Chairman & CEO, Eaton Corporation
 * John T. Dillon - Ret. Chairman & CEO, International Paper, V. Chairman & Sr Mg. Dir., Evercore Capital Partners
 * Eleuthere I. du Pont - President, Longwood Foundation, Inc.
 * Marillyn Hewson - Executive VP, Electronic Systems, Lockheed Martin Corporation
 * Lois D. Juliber - Ret. Vice Chairman, Colgate-Palmolive Co.
 * William K. Reilly - President & CEO, Aqua International Partners, LP
 * Mary E. Bowler - Company Secretary & Corporate Counsel

Contact
DuPont Building 1007 Market Street Wilmington, DE 19898

Phone: 302-774-1000

Fax: 302-999-4399

Toll Free: 800-441-7515

Web address: http://www.dupont.com/

SourceWatch articles

 * Agricultural Biotechnology Council
 * Animal testing
 * Biotechnology
 * Chemical companies, lobbyists and agribusiness
 * Children's Health Forum
 * Climate Action Partnership
 * Donald K. Ross
 * Environmentalism
 * Environmental Defense Dances With DuPont On Nanotechnology
 * Food and Drug Administration
 * Invista
 * Koch Industries
 * Manhattan Project
 * M+R Strategic Services
 * Nanotechnology
 * Precautionary principle
 * Responsible Care
 * Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
 * The Weinberg Group
 * Dewey Square Group

External articles

 * Nicholas Varchaver Chemical reaction, Fortune, March 22, 2007.
 * John Heilprin Papers: DuPont Hid Chemical Risk Studies, Associated Press, November 16, 2005

External resources

 * Gary Guralny, Shawn Gilchrist DuPont & Greenwash: An Examination of the Limits to DuPont's "Sustainability" Commitments, DuPont Solidarity Council, November 2006
 * Scott Hornby The Green Marketing Machine, Investopedia, accessed February 2010

Books

 * Gerard Colby Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain, Lyle Stuart, 1984, ISBN 978-0818403521